I don't know if you all feel as sad about putting away your bikinis and shorts as I do, but I'm a real summer baby so the transition to coats and boots doesn't make me feel very happy. As well as swapping my wardrobe, I realised it was time for me to opt for a more autumnal hair colour, too.
Before I went ahead with dying it I did my research but it made the whole process seem terrifying, so I'm writing to tell you - it's not that bad!
Many websites were saying that dying bleached hair brown can often end up green. As I wasn't really going for the Shrek look, I researched how to avoid such a disaster. I noticed that advice to use 'protein-filler' was coming up a lot, but to my dismay I found that it is not sold in the UK.
After seeing all kinds of horror stories online: "My hair ended up two different colours", "It made me go bald", "Your hair will go purple" I decided to step away from the computer and try it out for myself.
Before: My hair had been bleached at the ends twice, and the top was all my natural colour.
Choosing your colour: I bought a L'oreal Paris semi-permanent hair dye from their Casting Creme range. I had used this hair-dye before so I knew that it worked well on my hair type and I wasn't allergic. I opted for "Iced Chocolate" number 415. This colour was slightly darker than my natural hair-colour at the top, but I wanted it to have a bit of shine. I would advise using semi-permanent dye as it is a safer option, and it only costs £6.79, so if it does go wrong you won't be loosing much. I read that when your hair gets bleached it takes all of the colour pigment out of it so the hair dye has nothing to cling on to. So it helps to use a red/copper shade because red is the last colour pigment to go. Most of the colours in the 4 range of Casting Creme Gloss have these red tones.
Application: You can apply the dye yourself, however I got a friend to do it for me. She isn't a hair dresser and she had actually never dyed hair before, but it's always funner to do things with your pals!
Time it: We weren't sure whether to apply the dye on the bottom first where the bleach was, or to apply it there last as the box advises. We chose to do the latter. We figured we would do it all the most straight-forward way, and if anything happened I could re-dye it after. So, if you're going to do it, just follow the rules on the box. Apply it to the roots first then smooth through to cover the ends. The box advised 20 minutes but we were chatting away and lost track of time so it was on for 30 minutes. I think this worked in my favour!
Rinse it: When it was time to wash it out, it looked a worrying shade of purple. Don't panic! When rinsing it out use warm water and massage the hair so that the colour blends well.
After: I feared the purple, the green and the baldness for nothing. It came out a perfectly even chocolate brown. The colour was slightly flatter where the bleach had been, but the roots were warm and shiny. I was very happy with my colour, and for such a cheap price and relatively little effort I would definitely reccomend this method. So ignore the horror stories online and just follow the instructions on the box!
DISCLAIMER: This method worked well for me, but everyone's hair is different so please don't kill/sue me if yours doesn't turn out quite as favourably...
Emma
xx
No comments
Post a Comment